HYPER entanglement in SPACE

Project Information

HyperSpace

Grant agreement ID: 101070168

DOI

10.3030/101070168

Project closed

EC signature date 31 May 2022

Start date 1 October 2022

End date 31 March 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 1 941 172,50

EU contribution

€ 1 941 172,50

Coordinated by

FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HyperSpace (HYPER entanglement in SPACE)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon that fascinates scientists around the world. The very idea that two particles are intimately bound together and that a change of state in one instantly causes a change in the other, even if they are millions of light years apart, remains intriguing. This action, once described by the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein as "spooky action at a distance", is now the basis for applications in information processing and detection. Entangled photons have already been successfully exchanged over short distances in various experiments using free beams in the air or via optical fibres laid in the ground. However, the exchange over longer distances still presents technological challenges.

The solution: the direct exchange of entangled photons in space via optical satellite links.
Within HyperSpace, a team of scientists from Europe and Canada will study the distribution of complex (high-dimensional) entangled photons via satellite. It paves the path to take quantum communication research to a whole new level and to solve together technological challenges whose results will benefit society. The overarching goal of HyperSpace is to further develop satellite-based quantum communications by appropriate experiments into scalable global quantum networks. This global quantum network will interconnect a wide range of quantum processors using a variety of quantum channels, just as in the conventional Internet.
To facilitate deployment on scalable small satellites, the team seeks not only to develop new
protocols based on quantum hyperentanglement, but also to transfer these protocols into
scalable photonic integration platforms. Applications of HyperSpace in the field of information technology and sensors will be extensive. For instance, a global quantum internet will enable significantly improved applications, such as more accurate clock synchronization, highly efficient cloud information, or even highly secure data transmission through quantum cryptography that relies on physics. Some of these applications were previously not imaginable.

More information on https://hyperspace.international.

References:
https://www.iof.fraunhofer.de/en/pressrelease/2022/hyperspace.html
https://inrs.ca/en/news/propelling-quantum-research-across-continents/

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Start of project with virtual kickoff meeting on October 5th, 2022.

Technical meetings are taking place regularly. Further project meetings and workshops have been conducted in June 2023 in Montréal, Canada and in February 2024, in Pavia, Italy.

To generate a mission concept for global, satellite-based Quantum communication, a first draft of source requirements has been created in December 2022. Since then, possible mission scenarios have been identified and will be further investigated in the second half of the project.

Development and characterization of integrated photon pair sources have been realized using a silicon bichromatic photonic crystal cavity. Further details in Barone et al. (https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0170292).

Furthermore, polarization-entangled photon pair sources based on periodically-poled silica fiber (PPSF) have been constructed and commercialized by an industry partner, OZ optics.

The relationship between high-dimensional entanglement and the noise resistance of QKD protocols operating in high dimensions has been investigated in Bulla et al. (https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.L050402). High-dimensional protocols for QKD were used to show an improved noise resistance over a 10.2 km free-space channel.

Towards high-dimensional entanglement for Quantum Communication in the frequency domain, a record certification of discretized frequency entanglement has been shown with a highly efficient and nonlocally implementable approach in Cabrejo-Ponce et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.202201010).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of the publications mentioned above are beyond the state of the art and as such published in relevant scientific journals. Further research and real-life scenarios are required to show the performance of the integrated sources. Depending on their performance, commercialization of these sources can be expected. One of the fiber-based sources generating polarization-entangled photon pairs is already commercialized by an industry partner showing the market uptake of such devices. Moreover, regarding the White Paper under development for a mission concept, further research will be required to develop the hard- and software required for the identified mission scenarios towards a demonstration under real-life conditions.

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